


Campfires and Dragonfire

by nomdefauxplume



Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: Gen, Post-AMoL, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22933927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomdefauxplume/pseuds/nomdefauxplume
Summary: Nicola Foretold that the world would not be done with battle even after Tarmon Gai'don. To their horror, some veterans find it's easier to keep up with war than to adjust to the new world the Dragon made.
Relationships: Androl Genhald/Pevara Tazanovni, Theodrin Dabei/Jonneth Dowtry
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Taking a Prisoner

"Get down!" shouted Pevara, as a knife-thin weave of Air slashed towards Emarin. The peculiar slowing that channelers who started late in their natural life - late in the life of an ordinary person, anyways - had made him far more spry than he had any right to be. He flattened himself against the earthen street with only a minor grunt to indicate any discomfort. Androl slipped instantly into a link with her, and after a tiny heartbeat which seemed to compress the entirety of their souls together, she used his wonderful Talent, forming a gateway directly behind the Sharan woman who'd attacked them. 

Canler moved forward gracefully, his hand-dragon at the ready. The weapon had the look of a spear with the butt of a crossbow. Asha'man could channel to fire them, though the Power itself made a much better weapon. Still, Pevara had insisted on training with the weapons - you never knew when you'd be part of a linked circle and defenseless except for the weapon in your own hands. Her and Androl's unique bond eliminated that need for herself, but she was determined to make units of Red Ajah Aes Sedai and Asha'man into the very best they could be, particularly against other channelers.

Though she could not see his weaves exactly, Pevara _knew_ that Canler had slammed a shield between the Ayyad channeler and the source. That awareness from Androl was not a Sending, or even his own thought - more a background awareness from him. The Void he used to seize _saidin_ often dampened their awareness, but when linked, she found she was more and more able to perceive his weaving and even dimly sense the weaving of other men. A pity they'd never found the time to talk to Theodrin about their unique Double Bond, because Pevara was certain profound secrets lay within. She knew Androl was certain, as well, and even why he wanted to push Jonneth.

She had hopes of bringing Tsutama around, eventually - the fact that Tsutama had signed off on Tarna's mission to the Black Tower at all was proof that she was not nearly so hidebound as some believed. Unfortunately, the outcome of that expedition and the loss of Tarna and the others to the Shadow had made Pevara's later efforts...difficult. Perhaps that was why she was here, far beyond the Aiel Waste, breathing in dust kicked up by battle weaves.

The Sharan woman struggled as Faolain Orande wrapped her in Air and pulled her through a gateway to the Detention Grounds, flask of Forkroot already in hand. Pevara and her squad followed, dusty earth and strange, drooping trees vanishing as the gateway twisted in upon itself. The sun stood much higher here, the nearby hill would not cast a shadow on the camp of the expeditionary force for six hours at least. It was an odd inconvenience of Traveling regularly, as the sense of the hour became blurred and fatigue often crept in. The location of the central camp was convenient for detaining the scattered remnants of the Ayyad who would not sign either the Dragon's Peace or a separate agreement, in the manner of the Seanchan. Centrally located in the hinterlands that technically belonged to Andor, the camp was central enough to easily supply and remote enough that nobody would be overly disturbed by the army's presence. Ahead, Faolain paused to collect her Asha'man Warder and a pair of guards - Aiel, in this case - before heading on. Pevara turned left, and wound her way through the White Tower's section of the camp towards the central mess.

She had little regard for the other woman - she had that Blue Ajah ruthlessness sunk deep - but was grateful to her for her participation in these expeditions with the Army of the Dragon. Any joint effort between Asha'man and Aes Sedai was a good thing on the merits, what with Logain and the Amyrlin constantly elbowing each other. _You can take the woman out of Far Madding_ , Androl Sent, _but can you take Far Madding out of the woman?_ That was true enough, though irritatingly put, and neither she nor Logain could quite forget that she had helped capture him and see him sent to Tar Valon for trial and gentling. For that matter, neither could forget that the Black Tower _still_ held Aes Sedai prisoner after four years, bonded against their will. Thinking of that led Pevara to wondering if she should suggest to some of the women the Double Bond. It would end the compulsive aspect of their bonds, though it would also mean their bonds would be both far more intimate and quite permanent.

After the carnage at Merrilor was done, Pevara had found herself more than a little adrift. Her chair in the Hall was forfeit, Barasine and the Connoral sisters firmly in place and what support for Warders or Asha'man existing in the Red largely extinguished. Her sisters - including much of the Red - were deep in mourning for a woman they all insisted was a legendary hero as great as the Dragon himself, a woman she'd only ever seen in novice white. Some of Egwene al'Vere's ideas had been intriguing, such as forming close ties to existing groups of channelers where their own discipline and numbers prevented the White Tower from absorbing or destroying them. But others - the new, often unsuitable novices. Raising her friends and lackeys to the shawl by decree. And she'd unleashed the Trakand woman, who made Pevara's own mission to harmonize relations between the White Tower and the Black much harder than it should've been. Yes, the past few years had been as professionally frustrating as they'd been personally fulfilling.

So she was here, collecting a thin soup of lentils and some unrecognizable, onion-like plant foraged in Shara, with her husband and their little unit. "It was probably an inevitable conflict", Androl said, aloud. He knew how to make even a stump and tray feel like their own hearth. "Elayne made it clear from the moment she began her rise to power that she would use organized channelers as key tools of state, and once it wasn't one of her own best friends holding the Staff and Stole..." Inevitable or not, Cadsuane had managed the situation badly by insisting that Elayne be tested and sworn on the Rod immediately or suspend calling herself Aes Sedai until she did so. An attempt by a pregnant woman to protect her unborn babes - and an attempt by the Amyrlin Seat to rein in a woman who was both an out-of-control "sister" and the Queen of two nations - had blossomed into an ever-larger debate about the Kin, with Egwene's retirement scheme and Elayne's patronage.

She needed a break, needed to get away from the bickering and the building tension at the heart of the so-called Free Lands. Needed to remind herself that she was still truly Aes Sedai and hadn't betrayed herself or her Ajah, even if she did spend more of her nights in the cozy house Androl had built for them than in her apartments in the Tower. Needed to get away from Silviana's challenging statements about liabilities, and from sisters who wondered why no Red sitter was present to raise Egwene. To get away from the cold, cold eyes she was sometimes sure were still watching her, flashing from pale blue ice to the deadness of the Turned. To remind herself that there were battles yet for the Red Ajah to fight, and that she would show them how. Here, among Warders and Aes Sedai and Asha'man and Algai'd'siswai and onetime Legionmen and even a company of Whitecloaks, she found certainty. An enemy that deserved little pity - they had fought for the Shadow, and of their own free will - and which presented a strategic threat to be defended against. Here, Pevara was sure she could still serve.


	2. Mess and Musing

Chewing on a particularly tough piece of meat, Pevara mused. Egwene's heroic death had left her reform program with a patina of glory, but it had also left the program without a strong advocate. Cadsuane had carried forward much of her plans, surprising Pevara, but not all of them. Pevara nodded at Androl's comment about the conflict's inevitability, sipping her soup. She said, "there are many in the Red who probably the view the situation with Elayne as proof that it's foolish for the White Tower to allow any organized channeling outside of the White Tower's authority. Every time she gets into a spat with the Hall, win or lose, she then makes a great affair out of inviting the Lord of the Black Tower to court for some minor reason. Light, she's all but promised she'll send little Gawyn to train with Asha'man, instead of the White Tower to train with Warders." 

Emarin, settling in with a strange bird she couldn't recognize on his plate, seemed to catch the gist of their conversation. "You worry that by humoring Her Majesty, Lord Logain is setting up a conflict between the Black Tower and the Amyrlin Seat, Pevara Sedai?" Pevara snorted, "He does more the _humor_ her. He's no fool, and by helping Elayne defy the Hall and the Amyrlin he's hoping she will help lend her own considerable prestige and authority to protect the independence of the Black Tower". 

Why under the Light had the Amyrlin had acceded to Yukiri and Lelaine's ridiculous plan to reassert the White Tower's claims to ownership of all but a few objects of Power? Yukiri should've known better, frankly - Pevara had been very direct about how it would play in the Black Tower, had told the Gray bluntly that Neald and the others would be just as opposed to such a move as Elayne herself. Even the Malkieri had gotten involved in that mess, for no reason Pevara could see, and el'Nyneave was usually pathetically easy to read. Pevara had made an unlikely friend for herself sorting that fight out - she'd once voted to have Leane Sharif deposed as Keeper, after all, and the woman was of Egwene's party besides - but meager compromise they'd convinced the First Guardian and the Amyrlin Seat to agree to had always felt more like a barely-avoided catastrophe than an actual accomplishment. 

Leane had not accompanied her on this mission, though Pevara hoped she might agree later. If nothing else, she might be interested in the latest gadget the Asha'man had cooked up. Them, and that _bloody_ Queen. In truth, Elayne hadn't been necessary - Neald could Align the Matrix, had a hand in making that monstrous hammer the King of Saldaea carried, power-wrought and ter'angreal both - and in any event, power-wrought components weren't actually _necessary_ for the these latest contraptions. They just made them less likely to kill you when you used them. Pevara swallowed. The meat really had been quite tough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the first bit of my first-ever WoT fanfic. I'm not really sure I've gotten the voice the way I'd like, so I'd be happy for feedback about how to improve. I have bits of more chapters and I hope I can keep my enthusiasm up to follow some of these post-AMoL ideas I have.


End file.
